Obama: IRS actions 'outrageous' and people will be 'fully accountable'

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a comment as British Prime Minister David Cameron (not shown) listens during a joint press conference in East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on May 13, 2013. The two world leaders discussed the Syria situation and other world and domestic issues. UPI/Pat Benic | License Photo

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom in the East Room at the White House on May 13, 2013 in Washington, D.C. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom arrive for a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on May 13, 2013 in Washington, D.C. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama after a joint press conference in East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on May 13, 2013. The two world leaders discussed the Syria situation and other world and domestic issues. UPI/Pat Benic | License Photo

British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama listen as a BBC correspondent asks a question during a joint press conference in East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on May 13, 2013. The two world leaders discussed the Syria situation and other world and domestic issues. UPI/Pat Benic | License Photo

United States President Barack Obama (R) meets with U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday May 13, 2013. Cameron rebuked lawmakers in his Conservative Party who have already decided that Britain should withdraw from the European Union. UPI/Andrew Harrer | License Photo

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- President Obama said Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups had "no place" in government.

"This is pretty straightforward," Obama said Monday during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. "If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kinds of practices that's been reported on, and intentionally targeting conservative [groups], that's outrageous and there's no place for it."

"They have to be held fully accountable," he said.

The American public must have "absolute confidence" that laws are being administered in a non-partisan way.

U.S. Internal Revenue Service inquiry of conservative groups included those lobbying to "make America a better place to live," new details emerging about the IRS investigation indicated. That lever goes beyond what the IRS admitted Friday, which was that it targeted groups with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names, several media outlets reported Monday, based on draft findings from disclosures to congressional investigators by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

The audit follows complaints last year by numerous Tea Party and other conservative groups they had been singled out and subjected to extreme and improper questioning. Many groups say they were asked for donor lists and other sensitive information.

Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division, said Friday the agency was "apologetic" for "absolutely inappropriate" actions by lower-level workers.

The full report by Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is to be released this week.

At various points over the past two years, the Cincinnati IRS office, which is in charge of evaluating applications for tax-exempt status, focused on groups making statements that "criticize how the country is being run" and those involved in educating Americans "on the Constitution and Bill of Rights," the draft report cited by The Washington Post indicated.

By June 2011 some IRS specialists were probing applications of groups focusing on "government spending, government debt or taxes [and] education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to 'make America a better place to live,'" the report cited by the Journal indicated.

The inspector general's investigation also found the head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division knew as early as June 2011 conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted -- several months before Douglas Shulman, IRS commissioner at the time, denied to a congressional committee the agency was targeting conservative groups, the newspapers said.

The findings don't make clear who came up with the idea to give extra scrutiny to certain conservative groups, The Wall Street Journal said.